Oregon Route 99E - Route Description

Route Description

OR 99E has its southern terminus in Junction City. Almost immediately after leaving the city limits the route crosses the Willamette River, and serves Willamette Valley towns such as Harrisburg and Tangent. North of Tangent, the route enters the city of Albany and serves as a main thoroughfare through town (for about a mile, OR 99E shares an alignment with US 20. At the northern end of Albany, OR 99E joins I-5.

OR 99E remains co-signed with I-5 until Salem where it again splits off from the interstate, serving many towns in northern Marion County. (A business route through Salem, OR 99E Business, consists of a section of OR 22 and the Salem Parkway; a previous alignment of OR 99E along Commercial Street, Fairgrounds Road, and Portland Road is often erroneously referred to as "99E" even though it is no longer part of the Oregon Route system). North of Salem, OR 99E serves the northern Willamette Valley, passing through cities such as Woodburn, Hubbard, and Canby, before entering the Portland metro area in Oregon City. The stretch between Canby and Oregon City is notorious for frequent and serious accidents.

Starting in Oregon City, and continuing through the suburban communities of Gladstone, Oak Grove and Milwaukie, OR 99E is known as McLoughlin Boulevard (after fur trader John McLoughlin). The road crosses the John McLoughlin Bridge just south of Gladstone. North of Milwaukie (and an interchange with OR 224), OR 99E is a high-capacity urban expressway.

In Portland, OR 99E continues as the McLoughlin Boulevard expressway until passing beneath the Ross Island Bridge (US 26), where it runs on the couplet of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (formerly Union Avenue) and Grand Avenue. It is the main north–south arterial through the central east side of the city. North of NE Broadway, OR 99E continues as MLK Jr. Boulevard and passes through several Northeast Portland Neighborhoods until its terminus at an interchange with I-5 and OR 120 in Delta Park, just south of the Columbia River crossing. (The interchange also involves Interstate Avenue, which was the prior route of OR 99W before the latter route was truncated).